Grab Your Partner!
There must be a middle ground! Be proactive in helping partner with the client on a tool kit that helps everybody in the long run: Develop a fundraising/editorial calendar before the end of the fiscal year.
Drop in all the core appeals like spring wrap, annual fund in March and the like. Fill in as many blanks as you can. It's OK to have a few TBDs, since things change. But working from a document like that, it helps your day to day as well as your client's leadership plan its year and be prepared for times of heavy approvals, new packages and the like. When there are things like the tax e-mail that will be evergreen for the most part, make sure everybody knows it will be an easy turnaround so you're helping be a partner in managing the work.
So, I'm a fundraiser having a mid-life crisis. And that's perfectly fine with me.
I am taking time to look around, lift my head and find REAL people who really want to change the world. And people smart enough to do it. Join me in this fun journey. I have no idea where we will end up - and that is the beauty of it. I'm nonprofit passionate, a hopeful world changer, and always ready to share what I know, learn what I don't, admit when I can't, and ask the hard questions.
While you're looking around for other areas of inspiration, check out The Moth Project at themoth.org (the podcasts are AMAZING), TED talks (doesn't matter which ones - find topics that interest you) and Volunteer Voices (again - love the podcast) written by volunteers from the Peace Corps. Don't see the immediate connection to being a better fundraiser? Just listen, you'll hear the message ...
